Tuesday, November 7, 2017

The Voyage of Drift Away - The Book(s)

This blog has been an online chronicle of not only Drift Away the boat, but Pamela and me, our dogs and cats, our travels, and our lifestyle. Many of you have asked if I'm going to write a book about it. I am now in the process of doing exactly that.

But I have a problem. It is getting too big. I'm not even through the first year and the book is over 300 pages, and I have two years to go.

I thought about leaving out the photos, but as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. Make it only about our travels? Naw. Too many cruising books out there already. Leave out the boat projects? No! That was half the "fun" (I just got to the part where we were replacing the refrigerator and found out the old one was glued in).

I left out the obvious parts, like going to car shows. But that ain't enough.

So I decided that instead of cutting out sections, I would just include the entire thing. When I finish and see exactly how big it is, I'll start editing it and whittling it down.

As you long time followers know, we spent a lot of time in Annapolis, Isle of Hope, and Brunswick, and I won't bore you with repetitive happy hours, etc. So maybe it won't be too bad.

But what I'm considering is breaking it down into two volumes. The first would be 2011, the second 2012 and 2013 to keep the size and cost manageable. To make the photos color, which I think is important, the volumes would have to be hardcover.

The cost of color hardcover books is lofty. The 174 page hardcover book I just published (Sasquatch, not cruising) sells for $59.99 on Amazon. These could be twice that each.

I can also do eBooks and paperback with black and white photos for the thrifty of us.

1 comment:

Contact me. I'm a trawler owner/writer who does a blog too. Travelswithvickiandbarry.blogspot.comI'm also a university writing instructor. I have some thoughts about your book project vlathom@gmail.com

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About Us

We started cruising on our old trawler in September of 2011, traveling from Connecticut to upstate New York and then down the ICW as far as Brunswick Georgia. On a visit back to upstate New York, we were presented with an opportunity to buy ten acres of land in Bleecker, a small town in the Adirondack Park. During 2013, we plan on continuing to fix up our old boat, but will also begin building a small farmstead in Bleecker.
You can follow our boat blog at trawlerdriftaway.blogspot.com and our Bleecker blog at bleeckermountainlife.blogspot.com.

Drift Away Specs

Drift Away is a 1980 Cheoy Lee 46' LRC (long range cruiser). She has twin 120 HP Ford Lehman diesels, 15 kw and 7.5 kw generators, and carries 800 gallons of fuel and 400 gallons of water. She cruises at 8 knots and has a top speed of 9.5 knots, plenty fast enough for this old sailor.

She is somewhat unique in that the inside helm staion is on the main level, along with the galley and saloon. There is also a helm on the flybridge. The lower level has three staterooms, each with a full head, plus the engine room.

Drift Away sat on the hard for many years before we bought it from an estate. She has suffered considerably from neglect, but we are amazed at all the things that work, like the two Ford Lehmans, and the Naiad stabilizers. There was and is much work to do, but we will return her to ship shape condition. Eventually. As long as it doesn't interfere with having fun.